Theonym, toponym, and ethnonym Cover Image
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Теоним, хороним, этноним
Theonym, toponym, and ethnonym

Author(s): Armen Petrosyan
Subject(s): Anthropology
Published by: Асоциация за антропология, етнология и фолклористика ОНГЬЛ

Summary/Abstract: According to ancient tradition, the first capital of Armenia, Armawir, was founded by the mythic ethnarch Aramayis, son of Armanеak and grandson of the legendary forefather of Armenia Hayk (these names have been also attested as Armaneak and Armayis). The name of Armayis corresponds to the Late Anatolian (Lycian) proper name Armais, traceable to Anatolian arma- ‘moon, moon god’. In Armenian history, the moon cult was attested only once, in Armawir. This place name itself may be derived from Hittite arma- + pir- ‘moon [god] house’ (A. Petrosyan). According to two traditions, the Armenian ethnonym Armen is derived from the names of mythic patriarchs, Aram or Ar(a)maneak. The names of the ethnogonic patriarchs – Ar(a)maneak, Ar(a)mayis and Aram – might be connected with a single stem, thus Armayis also could be regarded as the eponym for Armen. Ethnonym Armen, according to a widespread opinion, is derived from the appellation of the land Arme in the South-West of the Armenian Highland, with the Urartian suffix -ni: Arme-ni ‘inhabitant of Arme,’ also ‘Armean (country)’ (I. Diakonoff).All of those names – Arme and Armen, as well as probably associated with them Ar(a)maneak, Ar(a)mayis, and Armawir – are hardly separable from the multitude of the homophonic ethno-toponyms concentrated in the north of Mesopotamia and Syria and the south of the Armenian Highland, attested to in the third-first millennia BC (e.g., Armen, Armanum, Armi, Armuna, etc). It may reasonably inferred that at least a part of those names are derived from the local stem for ‘moon, moon god,’ which was borrowed in common Anatolian and, possibly, some other languages of the region.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 13
  • Page Range: 201-210
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Russian